It’s Lezzy Time!

It’s February, the time to take a deep breath, sit back, and reflect on the fact that many of your bright January resolutions have lapsed into sharp February retributions (let’s hope March brings kind absolutions). Okay, perhaps I’m projecting.

In California, it’s the spooky time when the next season begins to reach a wee greenish finger out and tickle us a bit, with the budding and blooming of Magnolias and Ceanothus, better known as California Lilac, for its lilac-like capacity to predict the coming of spring.

But February brings another little treat for those of us online Sisters of Sappho (and/or readers of Sapphites): yes, it’s time for The Lezzys!

The Lesbian Lifestyle (Our Stories Told) is hosting their third annual all-carpet-muncher, nothing but muff-diver, Friends of Melissa (k.d., Wanda, Ellen, Margaret, pick yer pop fave) Blog Awards contest! And because of the sororal conviviality (yes! looked it up! “sororal” is indeed a word, to which “fraternal” is the boy version!), it’s a lot more like a friendly mud-wrestling match, where everyone’s having a good time. Or not even that maybe. Maybe a tea party? With a mud-wrestling room? And a hook-up lounge? And an open bar? Where a wide array of seltzers are available for the sisters in recovery? Whole place is scent-sensitive? Except for the room set aside for the scent-happy? No processed foods, but every emotion and fraction thereof: processed to within an inch of its life, goddess love us! (I fear, with the recent New York Times piece on womyn’s communities, we may no longer have any secrets or in-jokes left. Good news or bad? I cannot judge.)

Okay but so. As Lori Hahn, 2007 Lezzy winner and wise wiseacre extraordinaire has noted, these things are great opportunities to discover new stories from new voices, and/or bring them to other folks’ attention. Last year, during the whole nomination and voting process, I had the great good fortune to discover many fabulous voices I hadn’t heard before. They’ve spiffed up the nomination and voting interfaces, and expanded the awards into nine different categories, so teeth-gnashing over the dilemma of comparing apples to oranges is kept to a minimum. I profiled last year’s finalists here, and regret that I don’t have handy the whole list of nominees, which included tons of other great reading, like The Other Mother, basically the mother of all lesbian parent bloggers, and Up Popped a Fox, penned (typed?) by an old chum who cracks me (and countless others) up with the dependability of a good toaster oven. (?!)

I’d like to reflect some more, but I’m interrupted here by the very same things that keep me from schmoozing more online, or being a more gracious and consistent host here, or returning correspondence (or keeping it from being accidentally deleted! yes, it happened! a whole inbox of unanswered LD mail, from my post-8 doldrums on to the new year!): a four-year-old girl and a two-year-old boy, neither of whom has preschool or a childcare swap today. (In the background: The space ship is about to depart! A conveyor belt is being lowered! Kids are counting down! Everything is URGENT!)